Hair care compositions which claim to impart both shampoo and conditioner properties to the hair at the same time are well known in the art. Such compositions typically contain one or more surfactants for shampooing or cleaning purposes and one or more "conditioning" agents for the purpose of making hair easier to comb when wet, and more controllable, that is less static and more manageable, when dry. Typically, these conditioning agents are either water-insoluble oils or cationic resinous materials or surfactants.
Prior art shampoo-conditioning compositions however, exhibit stability and performance problems because the shampooing agents and the conditioning agents may interfere with the performance of each other. This interference has required that tradeoffs be made between shampooing and conditioning.
A problem with prior art shampoo-conditioning compositions is that cationic resinous materials and surfactants commonly employed as conditioning agents may inactivate or be inactivated by anionic surfactants commonly employed as shampooing agents; thus, the performance of either or both of the shampooing or conditioning agents may be negatively affected by the other. The prior art has attempted to solve this problem by incorporating the cationic materials or surfactants in shampoo systems utilizing nonionic, amphoteric, or cationic cosurfactants as shampooing agents, but these systems do not deliver as desirable a level of cleaning or foaming as do anionic shampoo systems. The prior art has also attempted to solve the problem of incompatibility of the shampooing and conditioning agents by limiting the concentration of cationic conditioning agents to levels in which such problems are minimized; this limitation impedes the conditioning efficacy of prior art compositions.
Another problem associated with prior art shampoo-conditioning compositions is that cationic resinous materials and surfactants commonly employed as conditioning agents may be inactivated by or be incompatible with anionic carboxyvinyl polymers commonly employed as thickening and suspending agents. The prior art has attempted to solve this problem by limiting the level of cationic conditioning agents to a level in which inactivation or incompatibility problems are minimized; this limitation impedes the conditioning efficacy of prior art compositions.
Another problem associated with prior art shampoo-conditioning compositions is that waterinsoluble oils such as vegetable oils commonly employed as conditioning agents are incompatible with surfactants, especially anionic surfactants, utilized as shampooing agents. This incompatibility may be manifest in a lack of homogeneity in the composition or in inadequate shelf life for the same.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,686,254, 4,788,006, 4,491,539, 3,964,500 and 3,969,500 are representative of prior art compositions which attempt to address the problems described above, but which fail in some aspect of conditioning performance, shampooing performance, or shelf-stability. None permit the combination of oily conditioning agents, cationic conditioning agents, anionic carboxyvinyl polymers, and shampooing agents particularly anionic surfactants, to form a composition having the desired characteristics described above.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a shampoo-conditioning composition providing both enhanced shampooing and conditioning without compromising shelfstability. Further, desirably, the composition utilizes both oily conditioning agents and cationic conditioning agents to provide enhanced conditioning. Further, desirably, the composition utilizes an oily conditioning agent which is natural, biodegradable, inexpensive, and readily available. Further, desirably, such oily conditioning agent will be suspendable and stabilizable with an anionic carboxyvinyl polymer commercially available at uniform activity levels. Further, desirably, the carboxyvinyl polymer will be compatible with and not inactivate the cationic conditioning agent or agents. Further desirably, such conditioning agents may be incorporated into an anionic shampoo system.
Heretofore, compositions utilizing cationic conditioning agents and anionic carboxyvinyl polymers as thickening and suspending agents have been difficult to prepare due to the incompatibility of the two substances as discussed above. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a process for preparing such compositions wherein the incompatibility problem is circumvented.